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July’s most talked about brand stories included Uniqlo’s signing of Roger Federer, Anna Wintour lending her signature to Nike’s Jordan brand, and the number of secret gadgets hidden in Lego’s new James Bond Aston Martin model (more below).
The month’s client work involved a mix of brand presentations, research and the publication of the most recent edition of my market intelligence report, Halo Licensing Survey. Between jobs, I found a particularly eclectic range of campaigns to share with you, each using interesting aspects of product design, community engagement and storytelling.
Over the summer break, I have a backlog of more than a thousand collaboration campaigns from last quarter to classify and analyse. It’s a continuation of the research I summarised in the April edition of Collaboration Generation: designed to give brand owners statistical insights into the most resonant components of product and campaign creation.
Here's hoping your holidays involve more crunching sand than crunching numbers. Have a great summer!
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THEME: FEEDING OBSESSIONS
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Ultraman x Omega x Fratello Watches
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This time last year I reported on the amazing story of Omega’s #SpeedyTuesday watch. It was a product made remarkable by the Swiss brand’s acute sensitivity to the needs of obsessed consumers, and the rampant demand that met its release.
Last month Omega repeated the exercise, releasing a special reissue of the original Speedmaster Moonwatch with vintage logos and deeply encoded references to the 1970s TV series, Return of Ultraman. It’s a story set out in rich detail on the product’s landing page.
Readers of the Fratello Watches blog know of Omega’s connections to the cult Japanese TV series, but the brand’s commitment to bringing new layers of rarity and pop culture intrigue to an already fascinating watch makes it truly compelling. The market agreed, with the 2,012-piece edition of €6,020 watches selling out on pre-order in precisely 1 hour, 53 minutes, and 17 seconds.
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Aston Martin x James Bond x Lego
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James Bond makes the Collaboration Generation hot-list again! Last month’s most widely reported story was undoubtedly Lego’s release of a 34cm Aston Martin DB5 model straight from the fleet of Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Appearing under Lego's adult-facing Creator imprint, the 1,290-piece set is a treasure chest for movie buffs, car fans and the inner boy of millions more. The fully working model delves deep into the cult of James Bond, arriving packed with hidden extras, including revolving number plates, wheel-mounted tyre scythes, front wing machine guns and Goldfinger’s famous ejector seat. Lego needed to buy two licenses to make this product happen but knows that, for an obsessed audience, authenticity is priceless.
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Breast Cancer Research Foundation x Overwatch
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The disconnect between video game culture and the rest of the world is truly staggering to me. Over more than twenty years, eye-watering statistics from the video games market have been frequent curios in the mainstream media – always reported as if the gamer economy existed in some unreachable parallel universe. But this is changing rapidly. From eSports to the licensing business, it’s clear that video games are breaking down the doors of mainstream culture.
Blizzard’s Overwatch has provided perhaps the best evidence yet of the growing integration of game culture, by donating a record $12.7 million to breast cancer research last month. According to Techcrunch, an estimated 750,000 players shelled out $15 for a character skin named Pink Mercy during a special, two-week game integration. Additional fundraising came from T-shirt sales and pay-per-view streaming on the community platform, Twitch.
Gamers’ need to belong to communities and personalise their virtual identity are undoubtedly root causes of the fragmentation and disruption affecting lifestyle categories across the board.
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Akomplice x Nacho Becerra
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A skill for synthesising complex, emotional issues into simple images is one reason why artist collaborations are so often favoured by brands that rely on community and authenticity.
A particularly striking example came last month via the counter-cultural label Akomplice, whose seven-piece capsule created in collaboration with the Mexican-American artist Nacho Becerra made a poignant comment on the current political mood. I’ll allow Akomplice to tell the story of “Mi Bandera”:
“Standing staunchly against the border wall, ICE raids, separation of children from their parents, and the Trump administration’s general characterization of Mexican people, the Mi Bandera project aims to celebrate the confluence of two cultures by blending traditional Mexican serape fabric with the stars of the US flag.”
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THEME: OUTBOUND GOES INBOUND
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The licensing industry is turning on its head. As well as adapting to a broad shift towards interstitial, campaign-style activation, the ability to engage directly with consumers is causing many property owners to question whether licensing is still their most profitable course of action.
On 8 August, Playboy launches Playboy White Label – a new eCommerce platform featuring its first-ever in-house apparel line, with accents provided by the risqué hype brand, Anti Social Social Club. Only a matter of months ago, Playboy was helping its client brand be edgy and remarkable by licensing its imagery. Now the roles are reversed, promising the publisher sales, margin, and a tangible signal of the brand’s renewed cultural positioning.
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As an institution that mixes retail with fabric wholesaling and art licensing, Liberty of London has a long history as both a giver and receiver of creativity. In a climate where many other historic, high-genre labels are regenerating their archives for contemporary tastes, Liberty’s launch of an on-going collaboration with ascendant designer, Richard Quinn, via a collection of thirty-four accessories was dramatic and impactful.
Juxtaposed prints, big logos, light subversion and avant-garde presentation… how better to remind the market of a venerated institution’s continued relevance?
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Just like Nintendo’s inspired Labo system (reported in February, and shown relentlessly on TV ever since), innovations that combine digital and analogue experiences can generate a particular kind of affinity that crosses generational divides.
In a similar vein, I really enjoyed discovering the Zoom In – a fusion between Hot Wheels and GoPro that allows racers to create point-of-view video of their homebuilt tracks. Even more than the concept and physical design, the idea to market the product at the same price as any regular Hot Wheels model (camera not included) is engaging and reflects a fifty year-old toy brand in celebratory mood.
For GoPro, it’s harder to imagine a more low-cost, low-effort way of growing its customer base and user experience. But the fact the Zoom In is designed to carry cameras that GoPro no longer manufactures deserves mention in the list of the year’s marketing fails.
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Chia x Kidrobot x Jeremyville
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More than any other business, the art toy market shows marketers the specificity of consumer passions and the surprise and delight that ensues when disassociated cultures overlap. Honestly speaking, I could almost fill a newsletter every month just with case studies from the world of collector toys. After all, the ideas that come to fruition in this space inform brands from Uniqlo and IKEA through to Gucci and Omega.
In a month when Funko extended of some of its most successful characters into a new line of cereal, a new release from Kidrobot and New York artist Jeremyville stood out by shamelessly embracing the kitsch of the telemarketing brand, Chia. In doing so, it positions itself nicely adjacent to demand for ugly objects (see Ugg, Crocs), analogue interactivity and 80s/90s nostalgia. This particular idea may be one unlikely to be copied in fashion any time soon – unless, of course, Crocs is watching.
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THANKS FOR READING AND SHARING!
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